The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may or may not constitute prior art.
In addition to conventional manual transmissions which employ an operator guided shift lever to selectively engage one of a plurality of parallel shift rails having shift forks coupled to synchronizer clutches and conventional automatic transmissions which employ a plurality of planetary gear sets and clutches and brakes that engage and disengage various components thereof, there is now an increasingly popular third option: the dual clutch transmission or DCT. In a typical dual clutch transmission, a plurality of synchronizer clutches and adjacent gears disposed on two parallel countershafts are exclusively engaged, followed by engagement of one of two main or input clutches associated with the respective countershafts.
Such dual clutch transmissions typically have five or six forward gears or speeds and reverse and thus three or four actuators to translate the synchronizer clutches. Such actuators are typically bi-directional hydraulic, electric or pneumatic devices. Electric actuators may be controlled by microprocessors having embedded logic software and hydraulic and pneumatic actuators may be controlled by fluid logic circuits having solenoid valves under microprocessor control.
Because of their excellent fuel economy and sporty performance including rapid shifts, which parallels that of manual transmissions, dual clutch transmissions are gaining recognition and acceptance in the marketplace. Given this trend, activity directed to all aspects of dual clutch design, control and operation is ongoing and the present invention is the result of such activity.